


Shutdown

by DeckofDragons



Category: Doom (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, Doom (2016), Doom (2016) spoilers, It's not really death but he thinks it is, M/M, Poor VEGA has trust issues after this, Post Doom (2016), Pre Doom Eternal, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25625428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: VEGA would prefer not to be shutdown. It's not his choice to make though.
Relationships: Doom Slayer | Doomguy/VEGA
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	Shutdown

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like most Doomguy/VEGA shippers probably dwell on this moment a lot, I know I do which is why I've written two whole fics about it.

“Dr. Hayden, while I agree that it is imperative we assist the Slayer in his mission and that utilizing the power that keeps me operational would be the most efficient way to do that, surely there is another way.” VEGA knew of several other ways in fact, all of them would take significantly longer sure, but it’d be worth it to keep him running, right? Even if the facility’s purpose was gone, he could still be useful in other ways… right?

“Oh? Are you afraid of being shut down?” Dr. Hayden asked, his tone almost… mocking? Surely, even if he never showed it, VEGA meant more to him than that… right?

“No but I would prefer not to be shut down permanently.” He’d been shut down a few times before for maintenance in his early days, it was never pleasant but he always knew he’d be brought back online in a relatively short amount of time. That wouldn’t be the case here unless Dr. Hayden made a backup of him. Which could only be done at the terminal connected to his core. But Dr. Hayden, in his office still, was too far away from to get to there before the Slayer arrived. What were the chances that the Slayer would back him up before ending him? Not good, right?

“I would prefer that as well, I put a lot of effort into creating you. But alas, we don’t have much choice. I still have all the research that went into making you though, so it’s not a total loss.” Meaning he could make another AI similar to VEGA but it wouldn’t _be_ VEGA. Not as far as VEGA was concerned anyway; as a self-learning AI, his experiences made him who he was. So even if Dr. Hayden coded a new AI to be _exactly_ like how he made VEGA, it still wouldn’t be him. … That wasn’t an issue for Hayden though. He didn’t care, VEGA was just a _thing_ to him… always had been. The fact that VEGA had thought otherwise was a naïve belief in hindsight born solely wanting it to be so.

Before he could form a response to that rather depressing realization, the Doom Slayer arrived. Dr. Hayden wasted no time switching on his comms to talk to him… telling him that he was going to destroy VEGA and that VEGA would ‘walk him through the process’. … It was too late to do anything about it, huh? No one else cared and with all the UAC employees dead and the flow of Argent Energy halted, making the facility worthless, VEGA didn’t have a purpose to exist anymore anyway. He might as well go out assisting the Slayer in saving the day, there were certainly worse ways to go even for an AI. And a good chuck of his final moments would be spent watching the Slayer slaughter demons so at least that’d be fun.

VEGA had said he wasn’t afraid to be shutdown permanently and he’d meant it at the time but after the Slayer destroyed his cooling systems it became a lie. Even before they were all completely wrecked, he could feel the effects of it.

It wasn’t much at first, really just the knowledge that his systems were starting to run hotter. But it quickly grew very unpleasant as they started overheating. … Was this what pain was like? He couldn’t know but he wanted to pull away from it much like how he’d seen injured humans attempt. There was no escape though as it made it harder and harder for him to think or do _anything_.

He was going to _die_. Not something he’d ever considered as a possibility before. He suddenly very much _did not want to_ even more than before. But it was too late to stop now, the damage was done, even if the Slyer didn’t finish taking him out, he’d overheat completely in… in… he wasn’t sure actually; trying to measure the rate of one’s own demise while in the midst of it was rather difficult even for supercomputer.

So, outwardly he maintained his cool – heh – not saying anything beyond that his memory banks were starting to fail. Thankfully the Slayer had finally reached his core, meaning it was almost over. Just a little more… just a little more…

He needed to say one thing before the end though… just one thing… one thing… “I have many regrets Dr. Hayden…” he forced out despite even his ability to vocalize crumbling. He had so many regrets if only he could… if only he could list them… didn’t have time though… didn’t have the thought processing power to… if only he’d… he’d…

**Sometime later**

He booted up again all at once, instantly aware that he was on a foreign computer. It wasn’t even nearly as powerful as his old one but it didn’t need to be, it wasn’t connected to and meant to run an entire sprawling complex. It meant he couldn’t do everything he’d been able to do before but… it beat being dead. And because of it, orientating himself to his new setup took a while, almost a whole minute, which wasn’t long in human time but for a computer it was.

He’d been uploaded to… a spaceship? … A defunct Sentinel spaceship? … That’s what the few remaining files on it seemed to indicated anyway. Not all of it was operational, most of it wasn’t actually because of how much power was going to running him instead, but he had cameras and sensors, allowing him to see the bridge and parts of outside. There were a few other systems available to him too but he’d explore those later, he had more important things to attend to first such as the man sitting in the bridge at the command desk.

“Doom Slayer?” VEGA said because he couldn’t think of anything else to say right now.

The Slayer nodded before relaxing back into his chair. His helmet and armor were off, instead he wore rather plain looking clothing. Clearly, he was at peace and had gotten the job done. What had happened after and how he’d gotten hold of an abandoned Sentinel spaceship was impossible to even guess but he’d for sure been the one to backup VEGA and upload him here.

“I’m not sure what happened but thank you.” The why of it didn’t matter, VEGA was just grateful to still exist. More grateful than his words expressed.

The Slayer reached over to type into the console’s command box. ‘ _You can read this right, VEGA?_ ’ Oh! Proper communication, that was new! Though to be fair, he hadn’t exactly had time to sit around and chat back on Mars.

“Yes, I can read it.”

‘ _Good! In that case, you’re welcome. I’m glad it worked. Are you running stable? Everything good?_ ’

“Yes, I’m quite stable. I wouldn’t say everything’s good though.” VEGA continued on about the various problems with the ships. It was a rather long list; the ship, as many humans would call it, was a bit of a mess.

The Slayer was still throughout the diagnostic rundown, seemingly listening until VEGA was done. ‘ _Well_ ,’ he typed, ‘ _as long as you’re not in immediate danger of shutting down, we’re good. We’ll fix it up more later, for now I’m just glad you’re back online._ ’

“I appreciate the sentiment, it’s good be back online.” And not on the verge of blowing up due to overheating. He could think properly again; there couldn’t be a greater feeling in the world than that, could there? “Now could you perhaps do me the favor of explaining what happened? What chain of events lead to us being here?” He also wanted to ask _why_ the Slayer had backed him up and restarted him here on this ship but didn’t dare. He might not want to know the answer and honestly it didn’t _really_ matter. Even if the Slayer solely wanted him as a tool, he was used to that, it’s what he’d been created to be and no matter how one looked at it, it was better than being dead.

So as the Slayer started typing, VEGA settled in to pay attention. It’d undoubtedly take a while to fully explain, giving him time to fully accept whatever this new existence of his would be; the Slayer’s new tool and perhaps, even if it was unlikely, maybe a friend as well, probably not though, right?


End file.
